It's a good one. Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22, we were reading, we read the passage a while ago. want to focus mainly on verses 31 and 32. The rest is kind of giving context to where we are here. You see where Jesus Christ in verses 28 through 30 is talking about those who've stayed and stuck with Him through all of the temptations, through all the trials and everything, has been the apostles, the disciples, those who have been following Jesus, and appointing them their own kingdom, the place to reign, rule and reign with Him, as we know that we will do for a thousand years, and Jesus is talking about this. And then in the middle of this conversation, He just looks over and says, Simon, Simon, Behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. And then verse number 32, and this is the part that I really like, it says, but I have prayed for thee. The first thing that I like to think about, and this isn't even part of the sermon, so this is an introduction. Jesus prayed for him. You know that Jesus is praying for us as well? And whenever you think about it, the Lord God Almighty thinks about us and He prays for us. As the Holy Spirit goes and brings before the throne all of our petitions with groanings that cannot be uttered, we don't even realize sometimes the things that we really want to say and this Holy Spirit kind of translates that over into to where the Lord can get it. But then the fact that Jesus is praying for Peter. And the prayer for Peter is that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. What I want us to look at here is Jesus didn't pray and ask that the sifting be taken away. See, that's what we think is supposed to happen. We get this idea that God's not ever gonna let us go through bad times. God's not ever gonna let us go through the sifting. And so a lot of times we don't even really pay attention to what we read in this verse. And we kind of go with the idea that Jesus is, I prayed for you that God will just take it away from you. And that's not what he's saying. He didn't pray for him to get rid of the sifting. You know what the sifting was back in those days, right? Being just shaken up and letting the chaff fly away and the wheat fall down. I mean, just getting shook up. I mean, has anybody else ever been shook up before? I'm saying about 100% of us have in here. You get shook up and it's all for the good because the wheat falls, the chaff, we get rid of the chaff. However, Satan is wanting to do it. So you can pretty much rest assured that he does not have our best interests in mind. So in the midst of all this, this idea is not that the sifting not happen, but it is while you are being sifted, while you are being shook up, that your faith doesn't fail. So what is Jesus worried with about Peter? that his faith doesn't fail. And then once he's converted, when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. And you're like, well, why does he talk about being converted? Well, if you read the next couple of verses, you understand why. because this is where Peter's like, oh, I'll be with you until the end of the last moment. And Jesus says, before the cock crow thrives, those should deny me, not twice, those should deny me thrice. So Jesus is basically telling him, you're going to deny me three times tonight. So what's that converted? Well, I think you can go into John chapter number 21, I believe, the last chapter, and you can pretty much see that conversion. You know, Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? How many times is he asking? Three times. And that third time, he changed it. It's still love in the English. But it's that phileo love instead of the agape. And Peter's like, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I phileo you. And that's where Peter was converted, you might say. And what do we find after he's converted? day of Pentecost and how many souls were saved and added to the church. I mean, we can just keep on going to see what Peter did and just follow the book of Acts. The first half of the book of Acts shows about everything that Peter was doing and the other disciples after that point of being converted and strengthening the brethren. So tonight, what I wanna talk about is finding strength in the faith. finding strength in the faith. Let's pray and we'll get into this. Father, we thank You for this evening. Thank You for Your love and mercy. Thank You for all that You've done for us. And we pray, dear Lord, that You would just give us an understanding of Your Word, that the Holy Spirit open our minds and our hearts to receive understanding and knowledge from the Scriptures, Lord, that would help us to follow your will, dear Lord, and to surrender our lives according as you would have us to do. Thank you, Lord, for your many blessings. In Jesus' name, amen. Finding strength in the faith. I guess the first point tonight is the fact that what we need to look at is your faith. Don't let it fail. Don't let your faith fail. One of the most important things and resources we have as a Christian is our faith We can see that Romans 1 chapter 1 verse number 17 We'll be kind of running through some of these verses here. If you can follow me fine I'm not the fastest as far as flipping through pages and if you can't follow well just You know do the best you can Romans 1.17 says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Now let me tell you something, that phrase right there, the just shall live by faith, is found many times in the Bibles, not just once. You can go to Hebrews chapter 10 and it's there. You can go into the Old Testament, it's there. That phrase is something that has been repeated at least three or four times in the Word of God. The just shall live by faith. That means that the faith has to be the life of the just. It is what keeps us going, is what motivates us. It's what is part of our everyday life. Ephesians chapter number six, we find the importance of the faith as our defense. Our defense against Satan and his attacks. Ephesians chapter number six, verse number 16. The Bible says in this first two words right here, it gives you the idea of how important faith is in the light of the other pieces of armor that we are given. The Bible says, above all, taking the shield of faith. So you know something, it says above all, which is even before or above taking the sword of the spirit is to take the shield of faith. Even above that helmet of salvation is that shield of faith. The first thing that you're supposed to have and the most important thing you're supposed to have is that shield. The shield of faith is supposed to be right there with you. Taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. You know something? Sometimes the devil doesn't let you get dressed in your armor fast enough. I mean, if you think about it, we're in the middle of a battlefield. It's a battlefield, brother, not a recreation room. Yeah, we're in the middle of a battlefield. I mean, sometimes the enemy doesn't let you grab your breastplate and put it on real quick. You know, my dad and I were laughing the other day thinking about, you know, because I had my, we were stuck in downtown Louisville in one of the areas that just didn't look like it was too great. And I had my pistol, but it was in the back underneath the floor in the very, very back of the vehicle. And my dad and I were talking about, you know, how funny, you know, yeah, by the time we even get the thing, whatever situation would be over, you know. I mean, what are you gonna do? Look at the gangster over there with a handgun pointing at you and say, hold on, wait a second, let me go get my gun. You know, you're not gonna be able to do that. And sometimes the devil doesn't let you do that. So what has to be to hand? A shield. I mean, you can sit there, grab that shield, and quench them darts, and you might even be able to plant it, depending on how big your faith is. You might even be able to plant it there for a second while you're getting the rest of it on. You know what I'm saying? Get that shield. Above all, take the shield of faith. I mean, that's your first line of defense against Satan. and he will come unawares. He is that lion that sneaks around, seeking whom he may devour. And he, I mean, if he can get behind you and get you while you're down or while you're resting or with your armor off, he's gonna try. So, I mean, if you've got that faith to hand, just spin around, plant that thing and just trust in God. Because you don't know what's going to happen. That shaking might come. That sifting of that wheat might come. And you might be unprepared otherwise. Get that shield out and slam it down. And get behind it. You know, I trust in God. What is the first thing that we do whenever we have a situation? And that will tell you who you're trusting in. The first thing that happens, you come up into what we like to call shaking up or, you know, some tribulation, a temptation, something happens. Where do we go first? Hey, dad, can you help, you know, who do we trust? You know, if our first recourse is to go straight to the Lord, then we trust in God. But if our first recourse is to go to other people, we trust in people more than we trust in God. And where is our faith? You know, if we're getting shook up, as the devil wanted to do with Peter, then Jesus is saying that your faith failed not. We have to have faith. You let down that shield, you let down your guard, and them darts are coming in. and they will find a spot to rest in your life. The darts of doubt, fear, darts of temptations maybe that the devil tries to throw at us, they will find a lodging place if we do not have our faith in its place, ready to trust in God. What is our first recourse? Where's our first place to turn? And if you think about it, how many times did Jesus Christ get onto people for not having faith? Now let's look at Luke chapter number nine real quick. Luke chapter number nine, and we have verse number 41. The Bible says, and Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. So what is Jesus trying, I mean, how long do I have to put up with what is the quality? Faithlessness. The faithless and perverse, it kind of went to hand in hand. I mean, if you look at our country today, you see the faithless and it's hand in hand with the perverse. And you can even see among some of these so-called churches, because I don't even want to call them a church, whenever they give up their ground on where they stand biblically in regards to some of these woke issues, I mean, we are on the internet, right? So anyway, some of these woke issues and they're giving up space and saying, oh, we're gonna let this type of person, that type of, just anybody that wants to can come in and preach. Doesn't matter what you think you are. Go ahead. I mean, there we see that the faith has left the building. because it has gone from it's faithless and perverse. And that's what Jesus is getting at. I mean, he's saying, how long do I have to put up with this? And his time here on earth, he saw the faithlessness of the people around him. You know, sometimes it creeps into the churches, that faithlessness. Even the strong churches get attacked by faithlessness. And Jesus is praying that your faith fail not. in the midst of this. And we go over to chapter 12 verse 28. This is a more well-known verse of Scripture. Luke 12 verse 28 says, ìIf then God so clothe the grass which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O ye of little faith?î You know, sometimes it's not so much the great temptations and the great attacks of wickedness that come in as much as it is, sometimes it's worry. You know, that little bit of worrying, that's what he's talking about here. You know, if he shall, he can clothe the grass of the field, how much more shall he be able to clothe us? How much more will he take care of us and our needs and our situations? We can have all sorts of our plans and sometimes we do. I know that happens to me. The way I wanna do things, the way I like it, this is... But at the end of the day, it's not me that's taking care of it, it's God. And if I worry more about the details instead of letting God take care of them, I fall into this category of O ye of little faith. Trust in God. Let your faith fail not. You know, this kind of faith implies a relationship with God. You can't have this faith without loving God, without being near Him, without coming close to Him. You trust God? I mean, there's times it's coming up, I mean, we gotta trust in God. I mean, do you wanna trust in God whenever He's three feet from you, or do you wanna trust in God whenever He's 20 miles from you? I mean, which situation would be better? You know that song that we sang right before the special, draw me nearer, nearer precious Lord. We want to be near to the cross. We want to be near to the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't want to find ourselves in the problems and situations and God, we don't even know where we left Him. because we're the ones leaving Him. He's not left us, I guarantee you that. I mean, so we don't know where we've left Him. Where's God? Where's the Lord? Because we've left Him somewhere back yonder. I'd rather have God close by. So I can say, Lord, you seeing this? Yep. It's all yours, bro. I'm getting behind you. You take over from here. He's my champion, so I might as well put him to where he can champion out, right? That's that trust. That's that faith. Let your faith fail not. And you know, the disciples one time, they asked the Lord in Luke chapter 17, we're not gonna turn there just for the time, but they asked the Lord, Lord, increase our faith. And all he told them is if you have the faith the size of a grain of mustard, you can tell this tree to be uprooted and planted out in the water and it will be. You know, I mean, sometimes, have you ever thought about the fact that sometimes the only thing that keeps something from happening is our doubt? Or it's our limited faith? I mean, we're first and foremost in the front saying, yeah, there's no such things as tongues anymore. And I'll agree, I mean, as far as the whole thing. But if I'm out in the middle of the jungle somewhere, and I've got these people that need Christ, and I'm talking to them, and they're understanding me in their language, I'm not gonna sit there and question whether or not tongues is an old doctrine. I mean, if they're getting saved, well, praise the Lord. I mean, why? Because if I have the faith to believe, that can't happen. I mean, you look at Peter and James, whenever they walked through there, remember that guy that was asking alms? You know? Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee in the name of the Lord Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk. Now, what would have happened if that guy would have stayed there? You ever think about that? I mean, come on, get up. Why? It was their faith that went above and beyond money. I mean, think about what would have happened if that guy hadn't stood up and walked. I mean, people wouldn't have trusted in Jesus that day, I guarantee you. Their faith was so strong, I believe that God is going to heal this guy whenever I talk to him and pull him up and he's walking and leaping and praising the Lord. And it's not a Benny Hinn commercial either. It's the real deal. And you will never find that guy once again sitting by the wayside asking alms because he's gonna be out there working and running and doing everything he can to make his money from then on. That's the difference. And we see that, I guess the question that we get to is Luke 18, verse number eight, in the last time. Before we continue with the next couple of points, because, you know, I'm a preacher, we gotta lengthen out that first one, right? Luke 18, verse number eight. Make sure I'm on the right one. I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? You know, that question is becoming more and more relevant today. Because Jesus Christ could come at any time. But look around, how much faith is he gonna find on the earth? Will he find faith? And you know, even the ones that tout faith sometimes aren't as faithful as we think we are. Faith, will he find faith on the earth? Coming up is the next question. Where do we get our strength? Anybody? Where do we get our strength? God. God gives us strength. Right? Here's the thing. If our faith is low, our spiritual strength is also low. Why? Because if we're not trusting in God, we're not getting our strength. I mean, if God gives us strength, but we don't trust Him, we are not getting strength. And you know, what is it that Peter needed during that time of being sifted is he needed the strength of God. He needed God to be able to resist the devil so that he will flee from him. And he needs that strength that only comes from the Lord. But if we are not trusting in God, we are not getting that strength. I mean, let me just, I mean, if somebody doesn't trust you for anything, are you planning on helping them out very easily? Probably not. You know, you don't trust me, well, there ain't nothing I can do then, you know, back away. But you trust me, all right, I'll lend a hand. Whether it's a good hand or not, I'm human. But God, on the other hand, is all strength and all powerful. If you've got Him in your corner, you've got the whirlwind. I mean, you've got everything. You know, how can we strengthen ourselves if our faith is failing? The strength is in God, but if our faith in Him is little, then our strength is little. And we don't have what we need for the situation that we're about to face. So therefore, we need to strengthen our faith, that our faith fail not, and from our faith we get the strength that we need from the Lord Jesus Christ. We get the strength from God. Psalm chapter 27, verse number 14. Let's take a look real quick here. Psalm 27. Verse number 14, the Bible says, wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say on the Lord. You know, there's different ways you can look at that. One of the ways that I kind of like to look at it is waiting on the Lord as a waiter waits on a table, which is the more correct way of looking at this. But a lot of times we use the application of waiting. You know, waiting for the Lord's timing, waiting for the Lord to do something. And sometimes that applies. But here's the thing, I mean, you know, we want the Lord to do something. He shall strengthen our heart if we wait on Him. You know, we've gotta be doing our part so that God will do His part. And sometimes it does mean wait a second. Yeah, you're in the middle of a problem, hold on. You know, that song we sometimes sing, hold the fort for I'm coming. You know, sometimes you gotta hold on to it just a little bit longer. He's coming, his time is coming, hold on to that fort just a little bit longer. I mean, he'll be here, and it's just not at this second. And sometimes God is there, it's just not at the second. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. waiting and letting him come, letting him have his way, letting him have his will and serving while we're waiting, which is one of the most important things we've gotta be doing because you can't, I mean, if we're trusting in God, we're serving him. That's just the way it is. So if he's not coming yet, we're still serving while we're waiting. The good servants were the ones that put the money to good use while the master was away. They were waiting for Him to come back in time wise, but they were also waiting on His property while they were waiting. So that's the whole idea here. Serve the Lord as we wait and He will strengthen us. That's where we will get the strength. That comes from trusting God. If we believe what God has said, we will be doing that. Psalm 31, 24. Psalm 3124 says, Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord. What is the condition of the strength there? Hope. Where is our hope? You know, it's kind of funny that hope and faith kind of go hand in hand. Because if we're hoping in God, it's because we have faith that He's going to do something. So hope in God and that He will strengthen us. And I think one of the biggest promises that God makes in talking about strengthening us and one that is just absolutely amazing to sit here and read this verse, Isaiah chapter 41 and verse number 10. Beautiful passage of scripture where the Bible says, Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. So trust in God and He is with us. He is our God. He will give us the strength that we need. We're gonna be sifted, might as well be sifted knowing that you've got God's strength on your side. Knowing that God is right there with you. But here's the thing. Your faith shouldn't fail. Strengthen yourself. But then there's a responsibility that comes with that. strengthen others. And that's where we find Luke chapter 22, whenever Jesus told Peter, once that your faith has been converted, strengthen the brethren. strengthen others. So we find that Peter does come back after those three times that he denied the Lord, the three times that God, Jesus questioned his love for the Lord. And what does he do? He starts strengthening other people. but he comes back stronger than he ever was as a disciple. And now he's a leader and a preacher and one of the main ones of getting the gospel out, not only in Jerusalem, but also to the uttermost parts of the earth, because Peter was the one that was the first ones to reach the Gentiles with the gospel, even before Paul did. Peter was the one that went with Cornelius whenever he was asked him to come and teach me, talk to me. And the sheep came down and God said, you know, what I have, God has cleansed all not thou comet. And he went with him and he was the first one to start reaching the Gentiles with the gospel. And one of the first, I guess, you know, there's several that were doing that at the time. But one of the main ones, and then it was, he was convinced from that point forward that the Gentiles should have the gospel. Then, so whenever we look at this, if we have been strengthened in the Lord, then we can encourage others that are around us. If we've gone through it, if we've gone through the fire, that's something that we can use to help others go through the fire. You know, how many times do we see somebody going through something we went through? And the thing is, we've all seen it. I mean, if you've gone through it, somebody else is gonna go through it eventually. And so what is our responsibility? Help them. Encourage them. Give them your testimony. That may be all that they need to say, oh, he can do it or she can do it, then maybe I can do it. Strengthen the brethren. One of the people that we see in the scriptures that did that was Barnabas. Let's go to Acts chapter 11 real quick. Just look at this one verse about Barnabas. He's one man that you don't hear as much about, but he was definitely a great servant of God. You don't see him in the forefront as Paul was, maybe, or Peter, or some of the others. You see less in the scripture about him than some of these other names. But, verse number 24, Acts 11, 24, the Bible says, for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, and of what? Faith. What are we talking about? Finding strength in the faith. So if he's full of faith, and much people was added unto the Lord. Something about being full of the Spirit, full of faith, and you get to people. You start working with people. You know, this whole idea that I'm an island unto myself, that is nonsense in the word of God. We are not to be a hermit in the middle of nowhere, strengthening our faith with God on by ourselves. No, if we get strengthened, we're to use it to help others. I mean, and you go over and over, what was Christ's ministry on earth? It wasn't himself, it was others. It's always about others. Whenever we have faith, we have the trust and the spiritual strength to be able to help other people and encourage others. There is power in a Christian who is full of faith. There is power in a Christian who is full of faith. That faith just leads right up to it. If you don't have the faith, you don't get the strength and you can't help other people. You have to be faithful. You have to find that faith. You have to hold on to the faith, not let it go. Don't drop the shield. Don't throw in the towel. keep on keeping on and say, Lord, it's all yours. I don't know what in the world I'm going to do. I mean, you give me the direction, I'll do what you say. Not what I, what you say. And whatever you say is law. And we're going to do this. And we do it because you're the one that's in charge. And you know what's better for me than I do. Let God have His way. Let God have His will in our life. And you know something? Nobody said it was going to be easy. The last verse of Scripture I want to look at is Acts 14.22. It says, confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. It's not easy because that sifting will come. We're not getting out of the sifting. Job didn't get out of the temptations. Job didn't get out of all of these bad things and horrible things that happened to him. But in the middle of his tribulations, his faith did not fail. And our faith should not fail. Don't give up the faith. Don't fail in the faith. And let God strengthen you that you can strengthen others and you can encourage others. Every head bowed and every eye closed here this evening. We've got to pass through. We've got to go through these trials and tribulations. If the Lord's working in your heart to have greater faith, let him have his way. Let His will be done in your life. Just give up the reins and let Him take control of the whole thing. And He will show you His will. And He will strengthen you. And you can use that to work with others. Pastors, you come and close out the rest of this invitation.